In A Vase on Monday and Blocks for Friends

You know how one blog often leads to another? I recently came across Rambling in the Garden via one of the other blogs I enjoy (I don't remember who now). She hosts a meme in which folks can showcase the beauties they've picked from their gardens: In A Vase on Monday. I'm adapting this to my own circumstances. I like to keep a vase of cut flowers in my studio but can't get out consistently to grow very many of my own. In fact, I need to get out and clean up my little flower bed but the air hasn't been safe enough yet. Seems someone nearby is always either burning something or doing their laundry with products that are toxic to my system. So the last time I went for groceries at our local co-op I brought home a handful of tulips to celebrate spring.

I've put them in a hand-built cobalt blue ceramic pitcher. This arrangement is tall and slender enough not to take up too much space on my cutting table.

We exchange friendship blocks in my local quilt guild. The friendship block requests had piled up a bit while I worked on other projects and then had to take time to recover from that fall I had. On Good Friday I was finally feeling well enough to do some sewing. I managed to get all caught up on the friendship blocks!

As you can see, they vary widely in style.

I started with the house block. The recipient/requester will be adding a piece to the bottom right corner so her houses will be perched on a hill. I have to say, I'm tempted to embroider shutters on either side the window. But then I'll probably want to add other embellishments too. We shall see. That one was fun to design. The patriotic star came right out of my Parts Dept. so all I needed to do was add the outer border to complete that request. Easy peasy! Things got fiddly after that. The batik block is dramatic when complete but every piece is a different size. We won't even talk about the strawberry except to say it's based on a 1.5" grid. I'm just glad it's done and turned out so well. Now it's my turn. April is the month I get to present a friendship block request. I've had a couple of ideas but haven't yet settled on what I'll ask for. I might just go for 5" squares of novelty prints for another Disappearing 9 Patch quilt that could then be donated for a child in foster care. 😊